Three more hours. I just need to get through three more hours and I can go home for the summer. This past year completes my second year of teaching and coaching. Both of the girls and boys tennis teams won matches against their rival high school for the first time in five years. I was able to mentor a student towards graduation by involving her in tennis and helping her understand math concepts that seemed at one time impossible. As fulfilling as it was to watch her graduate I often feel a dark cloud of despair. So many students did not succeed. So many students seemed to come and go uninspired and unmotivated. Looking to the veteran teachers for help only brought the slight smirk and uneasy chuckle followed by an explanation of "You can't save them all and it is their choice in the end to learn, just continue doing what you can." Under this reflection of my past year I started my masters degree in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at Utah State University. I was also surprisingly given the opportunity to go to a conference about Professional Learning Communities that summer with several other teachers o my High School. Through such learning opportunities I had some questions answered and it is here in this book that I would like to share with you what has become my rallying cry for my teaching career.
